Today was Z's fifth birthday. (How is he FIVE?!!!) We had an ice storm last night and all day today, so there was no school for Nate or Z. I was kind of sad that he didn't get to take his treats on his actual birthday, but he will take them later this week. And it was fun to have Nate home all day to celebrate with us.
Z has been looking forward to his birthday since Christmas, and making lists of things that he wanted, and has talked about how many days there were left, and has talked about the things he was going to do on his birthday, etc.
Nate and I have been working on how we want birthdays in our house to run. I am always surprised by how much planning has to go into special days if I want to have traditions of any sort. I don't remember thinking that Mom had planned holidays, but there must have been some sort of planning involved. Anyway, this is the first year that we have really given it thought. And having 3 kids with the same birthday...that will make it a bit more difficult for them to each have their own "special" day, but we will see.
We let Z pick out all the meals for the day. He picked cereal for breakfast, peanut butter and honey for lunch, and tacos for dinner. We will eat out later in the week with some birthday freebies, as soon as they overlap with the little boys birthday. (More on that later).
We got him a balloon, as we have several years in the past. We tied it in his room so he saw it first thing in the morning. This year it was a Hot Wheels balloon. He loved it and pulled it around all day!
We got Z a man's XL Cardinals shirt for his first birthday, and he has worn it (at least tried it on for pictures) every birthday since. I love this tradition! (We got ones for the little boys too). This year he chose to wear it all day, and we let him since it wasn't dragging on the ground. It was a bit like a dress, but he was fine in it.
Since Nate was home, we let Z open his presents from us right after chores were done (although we let him skip his today) and we were all dressed. He got a Hot Wheels race track and a Tom and Jerry movie. We are having a family birthday later on for all the boys.
Z played with the race track for a good portion of the morning, then moved on to Legos. All the boys love Legos, and the little boys are getting much better at manipulating them. We finally gave Z the big box with most of the pieces, and got a few handfuls of just the squares and rectangles (not the little bitty pieces) out for the little boys. We were pretty impressed by what all 4 of them built. We took a break and watched some of the new movie, then ate lunch.
After lunch we had cake! I bought a 6" cake pan for the birthday boy, and then the rest of us will have cupcakes. That way each child can have his own special cake on his day. Z picked chocolate cake with chocolate icing (that's my boy!), with Hot Wheels on top. (He is totally into Hot Wheels right now, which is so random to me, and just doesn't fit with the things he has loved in the past, but whatever). He told me his wish: For more Hot Wheels and more race track. Classic five-year-old. He blew out 3 of the candles on the first blow, then the rest. (Later he asked if I turned off the smoke detectors so that they wouldn't go off with the smoke!). After we all ate the cake, I was reminded of why we have cake only a few times a year...the mess 4 boys make with cake is obnoxious. And, as the pictures can attest, cake decorating is NOT my forte, but Z thought that it was great.
He enjoyed the rest of the day, too, but there was nothing too exciting. He got calls from everyone in our family, and he loved it. I figured this was the first year he would really know, and he enjoyed everyone calling (thanks, family!).
Since Z got the big cake, he got to have leftovers all day, while we didn't. He loved that too.
When I asked him his favorite part of the day, he smiled and said softly, "Blowing out the candles." That is what makes the day special, buddy. Love that big boy of mine. Love, love, love him.
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